An important and continuing goal in the data storage industry is that of increasing the density of data stored on a medium. For magnetic tape storage systems, that goal has lead to increasing track density in recording heads, and decreasing the thickness of the tape in order to increase the quantity of tape stored on a tape cartridge. The development of small footprint, higher performance tape drive systems, however, has created various problems in the design of a tape head contour for use in such systems.
First, data storage efficiency can be reduced by entrained air that causes separation between a magnetic tape and a recording head as the tape moves over the head. Such separation losses can be reduced by providing bleed slots in the head that extend in the direction of tape travel. However, at higher tape speeds and with thinner tapes, air can still become entrained between the tape and slot islands located between adjacent bleed slots, thereby causing separation losses and a degradation of performance.
Moreover, for higher tape speeds, the bleed slots must be made wider, and the slot islands therefore narrower, in order to account for increased entrained air. The narrower the slot islands, the more difficult they are to manufacture and the more prone they are to breakage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,184, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a magnetic tape head that includes an interior tape head module sandwiched between two exterior tape head modules. Each of the modules has a magnetic gap and a transverse slot on each side of the magnetic gap for removing entrained air.